Sunday, June 5, 2016

High-Rise Becomes A Brave New World

Traditionally, the ideas of utopia and dystopia seem like
polar opposites – one is a world where all ideals are achieved, and the other
is the darkest imaginings of what humanity could come to. However, there is
some media where one begins to bleed into the other, and High-Rise was a prime example.

In this whirlwind feature, we see Dr. Robert Laing move into
the swanky new high-rise in town, where he enjoys all of the more carnal
pleasures in life, with access to all the drugs and sex he could possibly want.
Initially, his situation seems like a utopia. His social life is a bit lacking,
sure, but that’s hardly stopped him from enjoying himself. As the film goes on,
however, conditions in the tower begin to degrade; the rich dwellers of the
upper floors are engaged in a war with the poorer people from the lower floors,
everyone is turning on each other over everything from resources to petty
disputes, and everything basically breaks down. There are no more rules, no
more manners, and they all conduct themselves like animals.

So really, the question here is whether this feature is
showing us a utopia or a dystopia. A good argument could be made for both, I
suppose, but some of my previous reading has put me firmly in the dystopia
camp. What book changed my mind? Brave
New World, by Aldous Huxley.

This novel features a seemingly utopian society, where
everyone has food and a home, everyone is nigh constantly doped up or high off
of government-issued drugs, and everyone has sex with everyone else.The way this society lives on a regular basis
is very much the same sort of lifestyle that Dr. Laing experienced in his new
residence. However, as in High-Rise,
the reader discovers that the society of Brave
New World is not as ideal as it seems. People who spend time alone, people
who think, are considered outsiders who shouldn’t be trusted – one character in
High-Rise specifically points out
that Dr. Laing spends a lot of time alone and remarks that it makes Laing
dangerous. People of a certain appearance and temperament in certain castes are
looked down upon by fellow caste members, emotional attachments and marriage
are taboo, children are grown and conditioned instead of birthed and loved –
the list goes on. The society of Brave
New World is not as wonderful as it tries to pretend it is.

There were two key scenes that really stood out and led me
to notice the parallels between these two pieces of media: the moment when Charlotte’s
son, Toby, walks in on her and Laing while they’re having sex out on the patio,
and the reaction of various partygoers after Laing’s student commits suicide.
The first really struck me because, yes, sex had been treated rather flippantly
throughout the movie, but to brush it off so casually after a child walks in on you just floored me.
This carefree attitude towards sex reminded me of the group orgies that were so
popular in Brave New World, where sex
is treated with the same level of flippancy, regardless of who is or isn’t
watching. It’s at this point in High-Rise
the viewer can see just how far removed from normal societal conduct the
residents are, and can witness the beginning of their descent into anarchy.

A similarly indifferent attitude follows the death of Laing’s
protégé, who throws himself from a balcony during a party and only gets what basically
amounts to a “Bummer, oh well,” in response. Dulled by drugs, alcohol, and the
lax rules of their existence, that’s about the most the residents can do. None
of them had any kind of deep connection with him, despite him living there and
clearly having certain people he talked to. The attitude towards death in Brave New World is rather similar, since
nobody there has any family, and emotional connection to anyone is taboo. No
matter which group of people is doing it, however, it’s deeply disturbing that
a person can simply die with absolutely no fanfare or grievance.

Essentially, while the societies in Brave New World and High-Rise
seem utopian on the surface, cracks quickly emerge in those facades to reveal
the rotten dystopian core they try so desperately to conceal. All of the
inhabitants continue going through the motions as though nothing is wrong, but
as the viewers, we witness firsthand the downward spiral these two worlds
slowly fall into. We need only take a passing glance at the lives of these
characters to come to the decisive conclusion that they don’t live in paradise,
but a hellish prison of their own making.